It has been said that when you stop growing you start dying. This
principle is probably true in many different ways. It certainly seems
to be true
biologically and many of us as we consider what we are able to do in
our
older years compared to what we could do when we were younger can
certainly
testify to the credibility of the statement. It is also true in the
business
world and in the work of churches. A business or a church that is not
growing
is a business or a church that will die. It seems to this writer that
one
of the more positive things about Christianity is that it is a dynamic
evangelistic growing faith that not only brings new people into the
fold of Jesus Christ but also encourages, and in fact demands, a growth
in a spiritually mature activity of those who are a part of it.
Numerous places in the Bible, such as in Hebrews
5:12-14, we are told that we should not be content with the milk of
the Gospel, but should move on to the meat. The concept is that a
person
cannot be in an inert situation as far as their faith is concerned and
regardless of our age or maturity in the faith we should be growing and
learning and finding out new things about God, about the Church, and
about our abilities to serve a lost and dying world.

The principle that we should be growing and that if we are not we
will be dying is also very true of our faith. A person who does not
constantly nurture their faith and provide it with a means of growth
and maturity is a person whose faith will begin to die. The cares and
problems of the world, the attacks of secularism and immorality and the
constant grind of temptation upon our own personal needs and wants can
tear us down unless there is
a constant newness to our faith. The purpose of this article is to
describe some ways in which each of us individually can strengthen and
nurture our faith regardless of whether we are a preacher or a person
who has just become a Christian and is floundering with the newness of
faith and the
disabilities of warding off the challenges of life in the 20th Century.
Let
us suggest some things that each of us can do:

1. Hearing totally and open-mindedly the Word of God (Romans 10:17).
What is assumed in the statement of this passage? The passage certainly
is not intended to suggest that our purpose in hearing the Gospel
should be a reinforcement of already held positions. An incredible
percentage of people in religion and in the world at large listen only
to the presentation of things that they already believe. Whatever issue
one wishes to talk about, one cannot have confidence about the*
position on that issue if the only position they have ever heard
presented is the one to which they currently subscribe. Hearing a
different vantage point on a position will do one of two things. It
will either motivate us to realize that there is a possibility that our
position on the issue in the past has been erroneous or it will
convince us that our position has been correct and strengthen our
resolve
on the issue at hand. The assertion that to hear only one side of an
issue
makes one strong on that issue is erroneous, because one gets bored and
begins
to die when one is not introduced with the stimulus to grow.

One of the reasons that there has been so much stagnation in the
Church in the area of Christian Evidences has been the fact the
cherished traditions and positions have been held without an
examination of whether those positions might, in fact, be erroneous. As
a result of this, parents, Bible school teachers and sometimes even
preachers have not been able to meet the questions of young people as
they are challenged by the things they come in contact with through the
media and through their public school education. One needs to know what
the opposing positions are on an issue in order to know whether the
issue is being answered satisfactorily by the congregation's
leadership, by a parent, by a Bible school teacher, or by your own
understanding of the Bible. One of the reasons that so many young
people leave the Church is the fact that they have never been
confronted with different perspectives on the creation, evolution, and
related issues. The only presentations
they have heard and the only evidence they have seen are those that
have
been very carefully controlled by the people who have instructed them.
When
they see a variety of different positions to which they have never been
exposed and they realize that they are unable to answer the questions
raised
by these positions from their own training and ability, there is a
general
tendency to assume that the positions they have held to in the past are
erroneous. We build our faith by understanding the different
perspectives
on an issue and realizing that the belief to which we hold is able to
more logically and more reasonably answer the questions of the data
than
the opposing points of view. This is a great way of building faith.
In many of the writings in the letters of the New Testament, you will
notice in the teachings of Jesus that not only are the instructions
given
as to what people should do, but statements are made as to the
alternatives
that are available to each person in each of these areas. This is a
great
road to faith and can serve us well in the building of our resolve to
be
more effective in God's service.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in
them; for God hath shewed it unto them. for the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood By
the things that arc made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that
they are without excuse: Because that, when they new God, they
glorified him not as God, neither
were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish
heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools,....

Numerous places in the Bible we are told we can build our faith by
examining the creation. For we are told the heavens declare the
glory of God
and the firmaments sheweth his handiwork (Psalms 19:1)
and also that we are to consider the creation and ask, "Who created all
this?" (Isaiah
40:26). We are challenged to continue to look at the creation and
to realize the handiwork of God that is all around us. There has been a
terrible lack
of consistency in the Church and in Christian homes in encouraging
children to look for the beauty in nature. Many of us as adults have
allowed ourselves to become obsessed with the tragedy, the ugliness,
and the problems of
the world and ignore the great beauty and functionability that is all
around us. We need to consistently look for the wisdom and the beauty
that is in nature. We need to make sure our diet of evidences is
consistent, regular and balanced. Just as our physical bodies cannot
tolerate sporadic additions of basic nutrients neither can our faith
survive, grow and be strong unless the diet is regular and consistent.
The purpose of our Dandy Designs column in this publication and
of the various tapes and videos that we
have in our loan program is to encourage people to constantly fill
their
minds with the evidence that God is in control and that the universe is
beautifully and wonderfully constructed.

3. See the wisdom of the plan given in the Bible. (I Corinthians
2:2-8). When one looks at the wisdom of the biblical commands as to
how people should conduct their lives and compares it to the wisdom of
men one can
see the tremendous strength of biblical teachings. All around us we see
humans attempting to construct their own lifestyles and ending up in
total
disaster because of the plans that they have formulated. This is seen
in
religious leaders who move away from the biblical teaching and attempt
to construct their own modification of God's Word and it is also seen
in
the writings of attempts of atheists to put together a workable system.
The following excerpt is a story from Larry West that tells of an
atheist
community that was attempted in the last century.

It Was A Town
Without God

Years ago, a group of atheists decided to show the world what a
fine civilization could be had if only the--and this is the way they
put it--the "superstitions of Christianity" were outlawed. They founded
the little
town of Liberal, Missouri. They boastfully advertised it as the only
town
of its size in the United States that didn't have a preacher, a priest,
a church, that didn't have God, Jesus Christ, hell or the devil. The Saint
Louis Post-Dispatch, a few months later, carried a lengthy article
about
the little town. It showed that, as a matter of fact, there was little else
in the town except the devil. Its hotels had become houses of
prostitution. Gambling, stealing, killing--it was all the standard
conduct for the town. The newspaper article was so frightful that the
men of Liberal had Clark Braden, the author of the story, arrested for
criminal libel. They also sued the Post-Dispatch for $25,000.
In the trial, though, the evidence was so overwhelming that the jury
took only a few minutes to render a verdict--in favor of the defendant.
The suit was dismissed and the town of Liberal, Missouri, had to pay
all court costs. It wasn't long after that before even life-long
atheists themselves left the town in absolute disgust. In fact, one of
them confessed: "An infidel surrounded by Christians may spout his
infidelity
and be able to stand it, but," he said, "a town of atheists is too
horrible
to contemplate."

There are some among us who want God out of schools. Bible reading
is totally unthinkable, the cry is, "Keep religion out of politics,"
and yet we expect to keep all the benefits of a God-blessed community.
God in the heart of a community, whether it be a family or a whole
nation, is the groundwork for its being a moral and safe place to live.

A Jewish gentleman not long ago stood up in a group and told of
his own
experience. He said, "A few years ago my bank sent me to make some
studies of a place in Puerto Rico. It was the worst, the dirtiest city
imaginable. It was a real hell." These are his words. Then he said,
"Two years ago
I went back to the same city. It was entirely new. The change was
unbelievable. The houses, the streets were all so perfectly clean. The
taverns had gone out of existence. What had happened? Did they elect a
new mayor? Was the
place educated by new educators? No." He said, "A Christian missionary
had
come to work among them. He taught them Jesus Christ. I saw with my own
eyes," he said, "what Christ can do in just a short time."

The Bible makes practical differences in people's lives. Shakey
marriages are stabilized. Drunken lives are sobered. Whole communities
are changed for the good. And you know? It changes whole communities
only because it changes
individuals.

by Larry West, West Monroe, LA.

This story has been repeated many times and is an interesting
demonstration of the foolishness of men, and the unworkability of the
things that humans suggest as the way to achieve success in life. In
our own day and time we have seen a spread of AIDS and other venereal
diseases by a refusal to
follow God's plan of life. Many people have experienced tragedies in
their
marriages and in other aspects of their life because they have
incorporated and founded their marriages and homes on premises alien to
what the Bible teaches.

We not only can see the wisdom of God in the practical applications
of life we can also see it in the values that we place upon things in
our lives. Value education in the public school has been pretty much a
fiasco because of the attempts to emphasis things that have no
substance. Emphasizing human institutions to the neglect of the real
Church has always ended in catastrophe. Emphasizing the individual
selfish rights to the neglect of God's plan for the family has been
catastrophic. Planning emphasis upon
money and things as opposed to meaningful associations and
relationships in life has brought misery and unhappiness to untold
numbers of people. Constructing worship activities for entertainment as
opposed to real worship has turned
religion into a spectator sport that has no real meaning or emphasis in
the lives of many people. A failure to emphasize the purpose that God
had
in creating man has resulted in an inability to understand problems and
difficulties
in life and placing an emphasize upon individual rights and selfish
objectives rather than dealing with how people should really treat one
another has
resulted in exploitation and abuse at all levels of our society. The
wisdom
of the Bible in these areas is so clear and so precise that if we
continue
to examine it we can see the great strength and the great wisdom of God
and build and encourage our faith.

4. Be consistent in the logic of your evaluations. It is
interesting to notice that throughout the Bible there is a continual
emphasis upon reasoning and thinking. Numerous times we read that Paul
reasoned with people in
the synagogue. Jesus constantly encouraged people to think and to be
consistent in the way they lived their lives. The Bible is replete with
passages
that tell us that we can accomplish our spiritual goals in life if we
will
be consistent in reaching out to them. Passages like Philippians 2:12,
where we are told to work out our own salvation with fear and
trembling, clearly indicate the necessity of people applying themselves
to the goals that God has given us spiritually.

One of the great tragedies of the 20th Century has been that people
do not use the same kind of logic in making decisions about their
relationship to God that they do in all of their activities in the
world. There is a tendency to demand far more proof and far more
perfection in the Church than
one expects in their job, at school, or other areas of their lives.
Evidences
that would have been totally acceptable for investing one's money or in
making a business decision is rejected because it is considered not
absolute
in responding to the commands that God has given us in his word.
Looking
at life's experiences in a realistic way rather than expecting a
Pollyanna
kind of existence has also resulted in a great deal of misery for many
people.
Not being willing to consider the weight of the evidence but demanding
absolute
proof in an area that is very similar to other aspects of our life
where
absolute proof is not required has weakened the faith of many
individuals.
Obviously, people might disagree on what is reasonable and consistent
evidence.
The fact of the matter is however, that there is so much scientific
evidence
for the existence of God, for Jesus being the Son of God, and for the
Bible
being God's Word that a person can know with as much confidence as they
can
know anything in their lives that these principles are true. Double
standards have weakened the faith of many people and consistency in
weighing
the evidence is essential to the building of our faith.

When one studies the heroes of faith of the Old Testament such as
Abraham, one does not see instantaneous faith as a part of their
makeup. Abraham was willing to tell half-truths about his wife many
times because he did not
have the kind of faith that he needed to believe that God would fulfill
his
promises and sustain him in his journeys. Throughout his life however,
Abraham
grew and as he continued to look at the evidence that God had provided
to
him and the things that had happened in his life, both good and bad, he
was ultimately able to become the giant of faith described in the book
of
Hebrews. You and I will not arrive at great faith overnight but our
faith can and must grow. If we will apply the tools God has given us
and look logically and consistently at the evidence that he has placed
in our hands we can grow into believing, active, dynamic Christians who
can make a difference in
the world in which we live, and bring the love of Christ and the peace
that passeth all understanding to a world that is struggling with
inconsistency, disbelief, and lack of direction. Build your faith and
nurture it that it may grow and sustain you throughout the years of
your life.